Extra, Extra: A Sunday Run and a Monday Math Lesson

Photo by {a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/by_pui/6250793627/in/pool-89872566@N00/"}PLTam{/a} from the {a href="http://www.flickr.com/groups/torontoist/pool/"}Torontoist Flickr Pool{/a}.

While some Torontonians were otherwise occupied this Sunday, others were suiting up for the 2011 Scotiabank Toronto Waterfront Marathon. This was the first year that the marathon “sold out,” reaching its entry cap of 5,000 a couple weeks before the race. And while the race ended tragically for one runner, the event’s participants reportedly raised about $3 million for local charities.

Michael Bryant, the former attorney general who was driving the car that killed cyclist Darcy Allan Sheppard in 2009, is writing a book about his experiences following the incident. From Penguin’s release about the book: “28 Seconds will chronicle the fateful aftermath of that late summer evening in August 2009, an evening when everything changed for the Harvard-educated lawyer, politician, and CEO […] Looking straight at the realities of the adversarial court system and a prison system filled with addicts and the mentally ill, Bryant decided to dedicate himself to the cause of legal reform. Michael Bryant is the ultimate insider, and his perspective is a fascinating assessment of what happens on both sides of the law.” Wow.

Your Monday municipal-budget math lesson, care of John Lorinc for Spacing Toronto: he debunks the mayor’s claim that it takes 37 Toronto taxpayers to cover the cost of one City of Toronto employee using real actual facts. Check out the comments section, where councillors Adam Vaughan (Ward 20, Trinity-Spadina) and Gord Perks (Ward 14, Parkdale-High Park) share their thoughts on the mayor’s calculations.

U of T has been looking at ways to preserve and honour Marshall McLuhan’s legacy, and now they’re turned their attention to the Coach House, where the intellectual giant used to hang out and think his brilliant thoughts. OpenFile Torontoreports the university is meeting with five design firms later this month to generate ideas for revitalizing the building by building new spaces around it.

Meet Blaze, a clever and innovative bike light developed in the U.K. that projects a bright green icon on the ground in front of you. It’s sort of like the Bat-Signal, but the icon’s bicycle-shaped instead of bat-shaped, and it’s projected onto the ground rather than into the sky. So, actually, it’s nothing like the Bat-Signal, but it’s pretty cool.